Year: 2021
Type: editorial
Abstract: As we began preparing this issue of Gender and Language, news broke of events that simultaneously show the recalcitrance of patriarchy and the resolution of contemporary forms of feminism, painting a vivid portrait of our contradictory times.In early December 2020 in Argentina, Buenos Aires's streets were thronged with hundreds of thousands of women and allies wearing green scarves.The demonstrations pressured legislators to pass a law allowing legal, safe and free abortion for any reason up to the fourteenth week of pregnancy, overturning the country's restrictive termination ban of 1921 (Pérez-Peña 2020).Despite staunch opposition from the Catholic Church and internationally funded anti-abortion groups, the legal abortion law was passed.That the feminist green tide and its allies were successful in their plight, bucking patriarchy's grip of women's sexuality in a very conservative geopolitical region, testifies to recent changes in oppressive gender orders.However, just one month later in January 2021, Poland made its abortion legislation even stricter, criminalising the termination of pregnancies for foetal abnormalities, the only statistically significant kind of abortion performed in the country (Kwai, Pronczuk and Magdziarz 2021).Despite rampant resistance from the population after the government's October declaration that the procedure was unconstitutional (Wilczek 2020), the ruling Law and Justice Party implemented its decision to criminalise abortion in most cases.In Warsaw's streets, where huge crowds had raised their voices in protest, leaders of opposition movements brandished green scarves in a nod to Argentine activists and their successful campaign.
Source: Gender and Language
DOI: 10.1558/genl.19523
Authors: Kira Hall, Rodrigo Borba, Mie Hiramoto
Language: English
Topic: Gender and Feminist Studies
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W3145279827